No more Four Loko for Kansas

The state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control notified liquor retailers today to pull the controversial caffeine-and-alcohol beverage — along with some competitors' similar but lesser-known drinks — from store shelves.

Initially, the department had said it would take an act of the Legislature to ban the beverages, which are already prohibited in several other states.

But a recent decision by the federal Food and Drug Administration cleared the way for the department to invoke its authority to immediately pull products that are deemed dangerous to consumers, said ABC spokeswoman Freda Warfield.

Kansas law "grants the director of alcoholic beverage control broad discretionary powers to govern the traffic of alcoholic liquor in such a mannet as will promote the public health and welfare," ABC Director Thomas Groneman wrote in a letter to liquor store owners. "Based on the FDA's finding and general knowledge of the effects of caffeine and alcohol on the human body, I find that these alcoholic energy drinks do not promote the public health and welfare and must be withdrawn for sale in Kansas."

At least four other states have banned the caffeinated malt beverages.

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